Rebellion - Will we be getting fleet formations this time around - support ships rear pls

I always hated not being able to order my line to protect the support ships

I would be good to have a number of combat formations.

a) support ships to the rear

b ) support ships protecting capital ships only

c) Heavy combat ships to the rear (meat shields)

d) All round defense - for passing through systems and getting shot in the rear

e) cruiser detachements - that can raid while the main fleet concentrates.

etc

f) Convoy mode - escort the trade ships

g) Raid and regroup mode - allows smaller ships to break off at targets of opportunity

h) Pure defence mode. The hedgehog....

i) Keep your distance - fleet avoids close combat to use long range advantage. This also has the advantage of keeping the fleet cohesive.

j) Close combat - get in under their guns. The odds are more even their. Carronades anyone?

k) 120% reactors on all ships - Drop slow and damaged ships from formation and push engine overload. bolt for it.

l) Smash through - Ram enemy ships - kamikaze style - this could get annoying though.

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nobody cares about actually being able to do anything other than spam ships in giant blob formation with their fleets?

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Doesn't the game already for auto formations? I know heavy crusiers and BS cap ships go to the front of the line, the various frigs and all the utility cap ships fall in behind that, and the carriers and LRM frigs from up at the end of the line. That way, when you take into account that weapons ranges are not equal, an enemy attacking from the front ends up entering the range of a good portion of your fleet ball all at once. Which is why the fleet balls work for so many people.

Besides the obvious isses of trying to micro manage a fleet of 80-90 warships, when you have 3-4+ such fleets doing various tasks.

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A number of the features you mention are possible to manage in Sins now, without specific formations being set.

Support ships and carriers generally stay near the rear, though the former will move forward to attack if you leave them on auto-attack. Support ships often favor capital ships now when it comes to auto-cast behavior: e.g. Hoshis love repairing TEC cap ships. Heavy combat ships should form the front line, and they do now(though they are very susceptible to bombers). Setting fleet cohesion to 'loose' and commanding your cap ship to move to specific spot before bombing a planet allows for some raiding action between major fights. Alt-selection will let you break off for specific targets of opportunity. The 'hedgehog' is basically tight fleet cohesion, and helps now in defending against strikecraft.

There isn't any sort of convoy protection option to speak of. You can order a pair of slower ships to move to a trade frigate and they'll follow it around for a while. E.g. select a flak and long range frigate and tell them to move to the trade frigate. But usually where you want your ships is in position to ambush incoming ships.

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